Don't Go
by TheWanderingMiko
Summary: Sesshomaru and Kagome have to say goodbye. Written at the request of the lovely YoukaiYume on DA and Tumblr


They were silent. Whether that was due to a lack of something to say or to having so much to say they didn't know where to start, Kagome didn't know. What she did know, was that when she'd first come back, when the well had first sealed itself, she hadn't thought she would ever feel the sorrow she felt right now looking down into the blue light that had become a constant friend in her travels between worlds. When she'd first come back, she would have given anything to return to her friends in the past but now…

Her lips pressed together, knowing that he was standing behind her and not daring to turn and look to see more awe at the well than sorrow for her departure. He didn't need to see how broken she was, staring into that light and knowing that this was the end of them. The end of their funny little friendship that had taken three years to build and had made her so happy.

A slow tear ran a course down her cheek, leaving it's stain for others to follow as her fingers curled tightly around the wooden lip of the ledge she was sitting on.

The first time they'd met again it had been three weeks since the well had sealed itself. Without the jewel her connection had been lost and with it, she'd been returned to her own time. At first she'd jumped into the well over and over, begging and sobbing and digging to get back to her friends, more than once she'd cried herself to sleep on the dirt. By the time he found her, however, she had almost surrendered. She still dove into the well once a day, but she didn't break into sobs when it didn't work, instead she simply climbed back out and continued on with her daily routine.

He found her on the bus, she had been sitting near the back, her school uniform not quite long enough to hide the purple bruising of her knees that came with her full weight landing on them every day. She didn't even realize it was him as he sat down, his guise having improved over the years. His hair was no longer white but instead matched hers at a jet black, cropped in a modern sort of cut that made him look like any other business man. At first she didn't even look up, but the feeling of eyes upon her became too much and her tired blue gaze rose to find he was looking at her.

He had barely glanced up as she caught him staring at the discolored skin of her knees and without a word she had tried to cover it with her skirt before the question of how it had happened came up. She wasn't quick enough though and her gaze had turned away as she gave him her only answer. That she'd fallen.

"Are you sure you didn't jump?" He asked in a low tone, just loud enough for her to hear over the heaving of the buss. The words stuck between them and as golden eyes surveyed her, she'd backed away from him. The next stop he'd gotten off and she'd followed him along the seats until the bus had fully pulled away from the curb. He'd smiled at her, the barest of smiles that had made the pain of sitting on her bruised knees in the hard plastic seat fade. And she'd watched him through the back window until he was out of sight.

She hadn't known then that such a moment would change her life, but it had. Over the three years that followed, they'd seen a lot of one another, forging an odd sort of friendship that some—particularly her friends—had questioned. They'd asked her if she thought it was healthy. They'd asked her if he was the rebound guy. They asked if they were sleeping together—the question had made her choke on the soda she'd been drinking at the time. They were all together very concerned and it seemed Kagome could do nothing to quell their fears.

But even with all of their objections, one thing seemed very clear to the three; for the first time in a long time—since the well had closed—Kagome was truly and honestly happy. She'd started smiling again and soon the well had become part of the scenery, standing alone and seemingly forgotten until the day he'd asked to see it.

And there they were, five hundred years of loneliness and three years of friendship between them as she sat on the edge of the well. Blue eyes turned to him then, wordlessly begging him to say something, to tell her not to go, to tell her it would be alright. Something, anything to make this ache inside her stop. He watched her for a moment, eyes the same unreadable gold they had been when they'd first met. The same mask hid his emotions from her even now and as her lips trembled, another tear sliding down her cheek as her cerulean gaze dropped to take in the magical light that begged to deliver her to the past. She leaned in, feeling her grip on the aged wood starting to slip, and something stopped her.

Sesshomaru couldn't breathe, as he stood before the old wooden fixture that was—quite literally—as old as time. He was too late, far far too late; even when this had started he'd been too late. But for five hundred years of regret, he'd not been able to resist her when she'd been right there before him. He'd tried, but as soon as those beautiful blue orbs had risen to meet his gaze, any hope of resistance became futile. The three years that had led them to this point had been the best three years he'd ever had and he knew that if he let her slip away, nothing would ever compare. Nothing would ever come close.

Those blue eyes that had sucked him in the first time turned on him once more, something in them begging him to speak; but what was there to say? Did he dare change his past and her future? Did he dare reach out and take her for his own when he knew how the book ended? The thought stilled his hand and sent a chill through him; he was going to lose her.

And as he saw her lean into the fall, any scrap of self control he might have had left vanished. For the first time, he touched her, arms wrapping around her in a firm grasp that held her to him; unwilling to surrender her just yet. A sharp gasp and his name from her lips were his only rewards as he stood there, holding her small frame firmly against his chest as he buried his face into her hair.

He needed her. More so than he'd ever needed someone before and the tone of his voice said as much as the words left him without permission.

"Don't go…" It was not a request, it was a desperate plea for her to defy a fate that he knew would leave them both needing more. Not once in his life had he begged for something, but he was begging now; for the both of them. He knew what would happen if she left and he was imploring her to spare them both a life of regret; to choose him.

"Please Kagome…I love you…" He whispered, "Don't leave me."

Kagome's lips trembled as tears trailed down her cheeks, his words burrowing their way into the very core of her being as her tears blurred the light from the well. What lay beyond the well was her future, but it was his past; and if she changed it, she changed him…and she couldn't do that. So, she carefully unwound his arms from her frame and turned slightly so that she could face him. Managing a smile for him even as her sorrow cut salty paths down her cheeks and bringing one hand up to hold his cheek.

"Sesshomaru…" She whispered, watching as golden eyes closed in an all too brief moment of combined happiness and sorrow as she said his name; as if it had been so very long since someone had. He knew what she was going to say, she knew that he did. "These three years with you have been the best years of my life" Taking a breath and blinking a few more tears escaped from those cerulean pools, she pulled him down to her and pressed her forehead to his.

"But if I don't go back, I might lose those three years." Her calm tone cracked with a sob as she continued, "And I can't do that…" Pulling back, she ran one hand along his face one more time.

"I love you too…" With those last words she slipped from the ledge, through the sands of time and out of his reach. And once she was gone, he sank to the ground.

The sky above the well was a pale robins egg blue but it might as well have been gray for the miko who sat crying at the bottom of the well. Sesshomaru…_**her **_Sesshomaru…wasn't there.


End file.
